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SUMMARY:Premembering Perception - Professor Kia Nobre\,  Oxford Centre for
  Human Brain Activity and Department of Experimental Psychology\, Universi
 ty of Oxford
DTSTART:20150306T150000Z
DTEND:20150306T163000Z
UID:TALK56645@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Louise White
DESCRIPTION:Dominant models of attention are mostly concerned with the pri
 oritisation of perceptual analyses according to our current goals. Substan
 tial progress has been made in understanding the neural systems and mechan
 isms involved. The standard view is that top-down\, goal-related signals m
 aintained in working memory influence perceptual competition to select rel
 evant items and inhibit distraction in the environment by acting upon rece
 ptive-field properties of events. However\, top-down biases are not restri
 cted to operate through receptive-field properties\; they can also act upo
 n the predicted timings of events as well as upon other\, higher-order pro
 perties. Furthermore\, short-term goal-related signals are not the only so
 urce of top-down influences upon perception. In everyday cognition\, our l
 ong-term memories also play a major role in guiding the proactive and dyna
 mic anticipation of events. In my talk\, I will review studies from our la
 boratory that investigate how we can orient attention dynamically\, taking
  into account the predicted timings of events\; and how we use long-term m
 emories to guide perception. Our findings suggest that in addition to bein
 g essential for assembling fragments of past experiences so that we can 
 ‘remember’ them\, memories are equally important for projecting predic
 tions to guide assembly of cohesive percepts from incoming stimulation\, w
 orking together with our current goals to ‘premember’ perception. \n \
 n(3) biography\n\nKia Nobre is a cognitive neuroscientist interested in un
 derstanding the principles of the neural systems that support cognitive fu
 nctions in the human brain. Her current research investigates how neural a
 ctivity linked to perception and cognition is dynamically modulated accord
 ing to memories\, task goals\, and expectations. She is also interested in
  understanding how these fine and large-scale regulatory mechanisms develo
 p\, and how they are disturbed in disorders of mental health. Her work int
 egrates behavioural methods with multiple non-invasive techniques to image
  and stimulate the human brain. \n\nKia grew up in Rio de Janeiro\, Brazil
 \, and then completed her higher education in the United States\, where sh
 e obtained her PhD from Yale University. She moved to Oxford in 1994 to ta
 ke up a Lectureship in Cognitive Neuroscience and a Junior Research Fellow
 ship at New College\, and then became a University Lecturer/Reader/Profess
 or at the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford  and Tutorial Fe
 llow of Psychology at New College (1996-2014). She is currently the first 
 holder of the Statutory Chair in Translational Cognitive Neuroscience at t
 he University of Oxford\, held between the Departments of Experimental Psy
 chology and Psychiatry. She directs the Oxford Centre for Human Brain Acti
 vity and heads the Brain & Cognition Lab.  She is also Adjunct Professor a
 t Northwestern University\, in Chicago. 
LOCATION:Ground Floor Lecture Theatre\, Department of Psychology
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